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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25318015">Rituals</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/blu3boi/pseuds/blu3boi'>blu3boi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dungeons and Daddies, Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Christmas time is a sad time, Nick deserves some mom love, Wholesome, a lil angst, ambiguously asian close family, glenn doesn’t, morgan knows how ancestor shrines work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 03:01:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>843</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25318015</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/blu3boi/pseuds/blu3boi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick spends Christmas eve with his mom.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nicholas Close &amp; Morgan Close-Freeman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rituals</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Nick doesn’t have to be sad during Christmas all the time. He can enjoy the holidays a lil</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>           Nicholas Close sits cross legged on the couch, a small, quilted blanket wrapped around him. He holds a xbox controller in his hands and lazily scrolls through Netflix. Nick is very good at pretending, he’s had a lot of practice. Right now he’s pretending that the fact his dad has been on tour for almost a month doesn’t bother him. The same thing has happened every year of his life, but it doesn’t get easier to deal with. Nick finds the movie he wants and presses play. When asked what their favorite Christmas movie is, both Nick and Glenn answer </span>
  <em>
    <span>Diehard</span>
  </em>
  <span>. In reality their favorite is </span>
  <em>
    <span>Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Not many people know that the rocker Close boys are Disney fanatics, it’s one of their secret father-son things they like to keep to themselves. The dark living room fills with blue light as the Disney logo appears on screen. Nick sits in silence, watching the movie he’s seen so many times he can quote most of it, when he feels his phone buzz. He looks to the screen to see the reminder he set for himself. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh shit right!” Nick pauses the movie and gets up from the couch. He walks past the heavily decorated Christmas tree, the one thing him and Glenn are able to do before he leaves for tour is decorate the tree which they go all out on. Nick makes his way to his room and grabs a small wrapped present. Glenn is not a very religious man but he does consider himself </span>
  <em>
    <span>spiritual</span>
  </em>
  <span> and there are certain </span>
  <em>
    <span>rituals</span>
  </em>
  <span> he does that he has taught Nick. Nick doesn’t really interact with the shrine as often as Glenn does, but he does have a ritual he does every Christmas Eve. Nick kneels before the small cabinet in the living room. He opens the cabinet doors, grabbing an incense stick. Lighting the incense with his lighter, Nick offers a prayer to his mother.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey mom, it’s uh me Nick. Ah that’s stupid you know that, sorry you know I’m bad at this. um...”   Nick pauses thinking carefully of what exactly he wants to say, </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I guess I just wanna tell you that I hope you’re doing well wherever you are and...” Nick takes in a deep inhale, “ God how did you deal with him leaving all the time? I feel like just when we start getting close again and we start to feel like a normal family he has to leave! I guess you knew what you were getting into when you got married but I didn’t agree to this. I wish you were still here all the time, especially right now...” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nick could feel his throat beginning to close and the tears came to his eyes, his vision blurry as he looked down and saw the small box in his hand.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh! I got a present for you. It’s not much but I thought you’d like it.” Nick’s voice cracks as he speaks, setting the small box next to the incense bowl. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t have anything else left to say besides that I -uh- miss you... And that I wish I could have gotten to know you better. I l-love you mom.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nick lingers by the altar for a few minutes, the smell of lavender filling his senses, taking him back to Christmas Eve when he was a toddler.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>        Nick doesn’t remember much but he does remember his mom trying to teach him about how the shrine worked, but him being too excited thinking about what present he would choose to open early. Morgan gave up on trying to teach her rowdy toddler, and pushed the incense bowl out of his reach, giving a quiet prayer to her late father. She crawled towards Nick who sat in front of the largest present under the tree, his wide eyes reflecting the Christmas lights.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Nicky is this the one you’re opening? Good choice, good choice.” Morgan felt proud knowing that Nick picked her gift over Glenn’s. Nick began tearing into the shiny wrapping paper, Morgan occasionally having to help him. The delight on Nick’s face quickly turned to confusion when he saw the contents of the box. A large quilt blanket with a collage of different patterns on it. It smelled of lavender incense and vanilla extract, it smelled just like his mom. Nick looked very disappointed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“What, you don’t like it Nicky?” Morgan lifted the blanket out of the box admiring her work, </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I know it’s pretty boring to not get toys when you're little but I slaved over this for hours you little butt-head! You know what grumpy kids get on Christmas?” Morgan dropped the blanket, and scooped Nick into her arms. “A visit from the tickle monster!” The sounds of Nick’s laughter filled his memory, now in the same living room wrapped in the same blanket, the smell much fainter but still there. Glenn and Nick have a lot of rituals they do, but Nick smiles knowing that him and his mom will always have Christmas Eve. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
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